Yoke steering confirmed variable-ratio

[headcase]

If it's really just the lack of a round steering wheel, send your factory yoke to a steering wheel shop, and they'll put a round wheel of your specification on the stock yoke with your choice of materials and stitching for probably around $1000. At $130K for the car, that's not a lot dough to fix what you see as a huge problem.

This shop did a custom job on my Lambo steering wheel, and they often completely redo the shape of steering wheels, so it's not hard for them:

DCT MS Products

There's plenty of other custom steering wheel companies that do the same thing. When you are ready to sell, you'll easily be able to find someone that will swap wheels with you plus cash.

But if you are just using the yoke to cover for another reason that you aren't getting the car, please ignore me. I often miss that.

True for most cars... but for a programmable Telsa with haptic buttons, I don't see this as trivial.

 

[Spacep0d]

I love the yoke and would give it a fair and through chance before writing it off. If it works, the extra visibility is worth it. How often do you have to spin the wheel like crazy? If there's variable ratio steering, then this shouldn't be necessary. Also, I could see velocity being a factor in how aggressively the wheel turns....maybe? There could be tech we're not privy to yet. Either way I love the yoke!

 

[AMPd]

I love the yoke and would give it a fair and through chance before writing it off. If it works, the extra visibility is worth it. How often do you have to spin the wheel like crazy? If there's variable ratio steering, then this shouldn't be necessary. Also, I could see velocity being a factor in how aggressively the wheel turns....maybe? There could be tech we're not privy to yet. Either way I love the yoke!

Pretty often, when parking, when making a u turn.
What shouldn’t be necessary? We already know how it works, and it works exactly as the older models, just with a yoke instead of a wheel.
If there was any tech regarding that, Tesla would not be keeping it to themselves, Elon would have spilled the beans months ago.

 

[whitex]

A turning radius over 40' is pretty bad. I wonder if they could fix the turning radius in software and using the toque vectoring on the rear wheels. Like the Rivian tank turn but not as extreme.

Please don't give Elon any ideas. I'm sure you could turn the S almost on a dime, in a cloud of smoke from burning tires. "Auto Drift U-turn".

 

[whitex]

This video helps explain things, looks like a scroll on the left of the touchscreen for drive to reverse, so not much different than a stalk,

Spoken like a fresh Tesla owner. Main screen works great the first couple of years, then it gets slower and/or dies. The gear stalk still works even when your MCU is rebooting or refusing to boot at all. Good luck shifting into gear in a couple of years.

 

[whitex]

If it's really just the lack of a round steering wheel, send your factory yoke to a steering wheel shop, and they'll put a round wheel of your specification on the stock yoke with your choice of materials and stitching for probably around $1000. At $130K for the car, that's not a lot dough to fix what you see as a huge problem.

Incorrect. All the controls are touch buttons on the wheel which requires your to keep your hands at 3 and 9 o'clock positions to find them. Making the wheel round would further complicate operating the car.

 

[dark cloud]

Spoken like a fresh Tesla owner. Main screen works great the first couple of years, then it gets slower and/or dies. The gear stalk still works even when your MCU is rebooting or refusing to boot at all. Good luck shifting into gear in a couple of years.

Fresh? I have driven 130,000 km in a model S. How about you?

However you do have a point. If the touchscreen does go black at some point how would you even get it on the tow truck? Is there an overide neutral button somewhere?

 

[bmah]

Clearly the steering yoke is something that people have very strong opinions about. As we debate them, each of us should remember to be respectful of people who hold differing opinions. None of us has an absolute monopoly on truth.

Thanks,

Bruce.

 

[israndy]

I thought the whole point of the yoke was that it was easy to disappear when the car is doing the driving, but no one has mentioned an ability of the wheel to retract into the dash, w/o that I don't get the point of the batman style wheel.

I also don't understand what is meant by variable, if it's speed sensitive that means the lock to lock turns change with speed? If I go super fast to the left and the crawl to the right, will the steering wheel still be centered when I wanna go straight?

 

[Cornellio]

How I learned to stop worrying and trust the yoke.

I'll think we'll all get over this soon enough. Yoke will encourage better hand position, because humanity needs to kick the stupid habit of resting their (usually one hand) on the top of the wheel.

 

[Ostrichsak]

If it's really just the lack of a round steering wheel, send your factory yoke to a steering wheel shop, and they'll put a round wheel of your specification on the stock yoke with your choice of materials and stitching for probably around $1000. At $130K for the car, that's not a lot dough to fix what you see as a huge problem.

This shop did a custom job on my Lambo steering wheel, and they often completely redo the shape of steering wheels, so it's not hard for them:

DCT MS Products

There's plenty of other custom steering wheel companies that do the same thing. When you are ready to sell, you'll easily be able to find someone that will swap wheels with you plus cash.

But if you are just using the yoke to cover for another reason that you aren't getting the car, please ignore me. I often miss that.

I'm not buying a six-figure-car and then having custom steering wheels or custom seats made. That's fine that that's something you enjoy doing not me. Yes, that is a deal breaker for me as well. From the overwhelming posts I'm reading online I'm not alone either.

Way to go Tesla! You took a vehicle that admittedly caters to the older buying community and then proceeded to replace possibly the most important interface item (until FSD is actually a thing) with something that is needlessly futuristic and potentially dangerous. These all sound like attributes the older community looks for and covets. Yeah, that will move more units. ROFL

 

[Yanniz]

I a

I think it's more natural actually. Up for forward, down for reverse. It matches the birds eye view of the car

I agree

 

[greenmore]

If it's really just the lack of a round steering wheel, send your factory yoke to a steering wheel shop, and they'll put a round wheel of your specification on the stock yoke with your choice of materials and stitching for probably around $1000. At $130K for the car, that's not a lot dough to fix what you see as a huge problem.

As other have already said, it's not only the shape of the yoke is the problem but that important controls are placed on it.

It is only intuitive to find the turn signal and horn buttons when you are holding the yoke at 9-and-3 and it's not rotated more than 90 degrees.
When you turn the yoke more than 90 degrees, suddenly the turn signal arrows point to the wrong direction and they are either on top or on the bottom. If you change your grip while turning, it gets even more messed up. Good luck finding the correct turn signal or the horn during a turn.

Some of it, I guess, you can get used to, but it will always be more distracting and less safe than having the horn in the center and the blinker arm in a fixed location.

 

[Yanniz]

I'm not buying a six-figure-car and then having custom steering wheels or custom seats made. That's fine that that's something you enjoy doing not me. Yes, that is a deal breaker for me as well. From the overwhelming posts I'm reading online I'm not alone either.

Way to go Tesla! You took a vehicle that admittedly caters to the older buying community and then proceeded to replace possibly the most important interface item (until FSD is actually a thing) with something that is needlessly futuristic and potentially dangerous. These all sound like attributes the older community looks for and covets. Yeah, that will move more units. ROFL

Understand the reservation, maybe test drive it first if that’s the only issue preventing you from buying the car. For me, way too many +s in this car vs the -s

 

[Altair7]

Level 5 FSD coming soon. You can get ride of yoke wheel sooner than you think

If you are not thrilled about driving, why spend the money on a performance car?

FSD is about as exciting as taking Uber.

No FSD for me, thank you very much. And I hope my lowly MS LR has a factory round wheel option, else I look at Lucid again.

The way things are going, Lucid might be a shorter wait.

 

[ucmndd]

How often do you have to spin the wheel like crazy?

If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say “every time I drive anywhere.”

 

[cryptyk]

I get the concern about the 2.33 lock-to-lock thing, but in terms of button controls, I think we'll get used to it. I ride motorcycles and the horn isn't in the middle of the handlebars. The blinkers aren't on a stalk. The human mind is pretty adaptable.

 

[cryptyk]

If you are not thrilled about driving, why spend the money on a performance car?

FSD is about as exciting as taking Uber.

No FSD for me, thank you very much. And I hope my lowly MS LR has a factory round wheel option, else I look at Lucid again.

The way things are going, Lucid might be a shorter wait.

I love driving my p100d in the mountains, but I sure love autopilot for my commute or when I'm sitting in traffic! The great thing about FSD is that you'll be able to choose the moments you drive the car and skip the mundane stretches.

 

[AWDtsla]

View attachment 672221
Search in the manual for "variable".

This is still ambiguous. It could be a simple mechanical variable gear pitch rack or computer controlled variable ratio rack. i.e. a computer decides what the ratio is at any given time, meaning you can't actually know the front wheel angle you are actually applying. The latter is disgusting as a driver.

 

[shinytop]

Is there an indicator in the binnacle area that tells you what gear you are in? I want to know with one glance what gear I am in before I move the car. Anything else is a safety risk.